


He's 'armless

by TheHumanRat



Series: Love After War [4]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 20:54:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17553029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHumanRat/pseuds/TheHumanRat
Summary: Once they were happy together, all three of them, but now it's different. Eric is dead. Aaron is alone. Daryl is really good at running.Aaron losing his arm, from Daryl's point of view.(Also, extra Enid bc the show never gave me enough of her)





	He's 'armless

They don't see each other very often after the war ends. Daryl spends most of his time at The Sanctuary, Aaron is looking after Gracie in Alexandria. Eric is dead and Aaron is still in mourning, Daryl is busy ignoring the fact that he's lonely because of it. When they both end up at the bridge construction site, they're very good at avoiding and ignoring each other. At least, Aaron is good at it. Daryl has gotten good at avoiding Aaron while watching him out of the corner of his eyes. It's funny how quickly you stop avoiding the love of your life when he's trapped and there are walkers coming. Except that it's not funny, not at all.

Daryl hasn't heard Aaron scream like that before and when he rushes to the man's side, he can see why. The log isn't just trapping him, it's completely crushing the man's arm. Daryl almost tries to lift the log on his own and with the adrenaline rushing through his body, he wouldn't have been surprised if it worked. Instead, he takes charge of the situation.

He realizes too slow that he doesn't know any of these people's names and just ends up shouting orders. Get the horses out of here, two people are ordered over to help with Aaron. The log is heavy and now that Daryl has taken a deep breath, the adrenaline has faded so it's hard to move. Daryl is suddenly reminded of the walkers, they're closing in on them so Daryl spins round and kills three of them with practically no effort. When he turns back to Aaron, they finally have the log lifted up and he dives down to pull Aaron out.

The arm is mangled and Aaron can't hold it up or even move it. Daryl can vaguely hear the two men who had helped him save Aaron gagging at the sight of it, but Daryl isn't looking at that. His family is running down the field toward the walkers which means that Daryl is free to get Aaron to help. He's not looking at Aaron's arm because he's too busy looking at the man's face. He's been watching him all day but until now he hadn't had time to see the bags under his eyes.

"Aaron. It's alright, I'm gonna get you to Siddiq." Daryl says, pulling the man closer to him so that he can help him move.

Aaron has tears running down his face and it's obviously hard for him to talk but he still manages, "You don't have to pretend to care Dare, it's okay."

Daryl's breath hitches in his throat. It's the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard, he's never cared about anyone as much as he cared about Aaron and Eric. He understands though, Daryl ran when Eric died. He didn't know what else to do, he still doesn't know what he should have done. Besides, Aaron had Gracie and Daryl was terrible with kids. The last thing Aaron needed was being woken up in the middle of the night with Daryl's nightmares. He doesn't answer Aaron though, he knows that nothing would be the right thing to say.

The only thing he can do is to prove to Aaron that he does care, and Daryl starts to wonder if he should even do that. Isn't he only going to leave again?

"Where's Siddiq?" Daryl asks Enid as he pushed Aaron onto the bed of the medic tent.

"He's gone." Enid answers, her eyes taking in Aaron's arm, "It's just me."

"It's just you, then." Daryl manages, indicating Aaron again. Enid had to do something.

After a few moments, Enid finally nodded, "I have to amputate."

"What?" Daryl moves as if to protect Aaron. "There ain't no other way?"

"The only way to stop the bleeding is to amputate and cauterize the wound."

Daryl accepts it almost immediately, but it still worries him when Aaron panics behind him, "What?"

"Here." Enid hands him rope and Daryl freezes for half a second.

"Wait." Aaron whimpers out as Daryl ties it to his upper arm to stop the blood flow. "Wait."

But Daryl can't wait, he looks up at Enid, "You got something for the pain?"

"It wouldn't kick in fast enough. We have to do this now."

Daryl tightens the rope, "Sorry, man."

Enid's voice comes to Daryl over the sound of Aaron whimpering, "I need you to hold him down for me."

Daryl pulls on the rope with one hand and lays his spare arm across Aaron's upper chest. For a moment, Daryl regrets even touching him. That feeling is only intensified when Aaron, face full of fear, reaches up and takes his hand. Enid is going to take his arm, Daryl should say something. He should comfort Aaron, tell Enid she could do it but even through all of his pain, it's Aaron that says something calming.

"You can do it." he tells Enid, and when she doesn't move at that, he screams "Do it!"

Everything after that is Aaron screaming, Daryl rests his forehead against the other man's. He holds the man down until Enid is done and the girl pulls at Daryl's arm.

"Daryl..." she says softly, "He's passed out, he's been passed out for a while now."

Daryl glances to the man and finds that Aaron isn't awake anymore, he can still hear the man screaming. His hands start to shake, suddenly he's asking Enid if Aaron is okay. He's stood up and shaking her by the shoulders when she pushes him, hard.

"Daryl Dixon!" Enid says loudly, stepping towards him and tipping her chin up. "He's alive. I saved him, so get your hands off me."

Daryl allows himself to wonder when the teenage girl he had met in Alexandria, the one who had tried to leave when there was trouble, had turned into this woman. The woman who was staring him down with a saw in her hand and glaring at him, daring him to try something. Daryl feels the guilt building up in his stomach.

Daryl looks at the ground, then back at Enid, "Sorry. He's just... he's-- Thank you."

"I know." the girl says, "I know how angry you are and I know what he meant to you."

"Means to me." Daryl corrects quietly.

"So do something about it. Go and find whoever did this to him." Enid shakes her head, "Don't attack me because you were a shitty boyfriend."

Daryl bares his teeth a little, but it's the truth. The red that he sees over Enid's words shouldn't be directed to Enid, it should be directed to himself, but he can't hit himself. He needs to hit something bad and he finds himself turning away from Enid and marching out of the medical tent. He marches right to where he knows Carol will be, she'll know exactly what happened, who was supposed to call those walkers away.

She's talking when he enters the tent but Daryl interrupts, "Who was supposed to turn that herd?"

Carol indicates the other side of the tent and Daryl turns, not at all surprised to see Justin behind him. Daryl's mind begins to cloud. Justin's behavior yesterday. His constant idiocy. Aaron screaming. Enid's words. He's moving in on Justin.

"Hey, the walkie wasn't charged." Justin tries to defend himself.

"Bullshit!" Daryl pushes the man, hard. "It's a solar walkie. You didn't think to check it?"

"It's not my fault the radio's a piece of shit."

Daryl pushes him again, maybe harder than the first time and they end up outside of the tent. Daryl picks up a saucepan from the floor and relishes in the sound it makes as it makes contact with Justin's face. He can vaguely hear Carol telling him to stop, but Justin is on the floor and Aaron is hurt and Daryl's fists won't stop.

"Daryl." Carol catches his fist and he's forced to stop, he wouldn't hurt Carol for anything, "I said stop. We'll deal with him, but not like this."

He can feel his bottom lip quivering as he looks up at her, already starting to walk away. "There's only one way to deal with these assholes."

He feels better now, so he takes a big breath and heads towards the medic tent again. Aaron shouldn't wake up alone. He's woken up alone every day for the past year and a half but Daryl doesn't have control of that now, he only has control of whether Aaron wakes up alone today.

"Show me your knuckles," Enid says when he enters the medical tent again and Daryl doesn't argue, holding them up.

She runs her thumb over them and Daryl finds himself flinching, he's not sure if the damage was done punching Justin yesterday or today. He doesn't care. Daryl lets Enid guide him to the spare seat in the tent, he doesn't even argue about wasting supplies when she starts to clean up his hands.

"I thought I might have to wrestle you down." Enid says after a moment, "Threaten to kick you out of the tent if you didn't let me look."

Daryl shakes his head, "It's a waste of supplies."

"Yeah, but I need something for my hands to do. I can't stop shaking," Enid whispered. "Plus, I feel bad for shouting at you and making you go punch someone."

Daryl shakes his head again, "Weren't your fault. You just wanted me to get away from you."

"You get scary when you're emotional."

"Ain't emotional. Just pissed off."

"You are emotional." Enid says quietly, "You and I both know what it's like to run away."

Daryl takes a heavy breath, "You know how long it'll be until he wakes up?"

Enid shakes her head, turning Daryl's chair so that he's facing Aaron, "But don't run until he's awake."

"Ain't going anywhere. Not this time."

He doesn't run. It takes Aaron a few hours to come to and by then Enid has administered pain medication so the man wakes up groggy. Daryl's hand is resting on the shoulder of Aaron's amputated arm and although he thinks that Aaron probably can't feel it through all the pain meds, he pulls away quickly when Aaron opens his eyes.

"You're not here." Aaron rolls his eyes at Daryl.

Daryl frowns, "I'm here Aaron. It's going to be okay."

Aaron looks to the end of the bed, "You're not here either."

The space at the end of the bed is empty, so Daryl nods, "There's no-one there, but I'm here Aaron."

"Would you two stop arguing? You both left me." Aaron mumbled, "Eric. You're dead. Daryl. You haven't looked at me in over a year. Both of you, stop talking. I just want to sleep."

Daryl's breath catches and he looks at the end of the bed, finds himself hoping that Eric really is there. He isn't and when he looks back to Aaron, the man has passed out again. Daryl stands up, glancing at Enid before marching toward the door.

"You said you weren't going to run!" Enid frowns.

Daryl turns in the doorway, "I said I weren't going to run until he woke up. He woke up."

Daryl runs again.


End file.
